Seaside Fight Night: Elyss vs. Shaoling

An opportunity to show her prowess was, in a vacuum, not something that Shaoling would necessarily have been especially interested in. It was welcome enough, certainly, but it demanded a time and place. This, however, was very much that time and place. She had little, if any, interest in the affairs or the ambitions of the Vandenreich. Their stated goals were, if nothing else, nothing worth looking down on. But for the moment, when they had organized this affair, she was wholly willing to align her small wandering dojo with them.

Not because she cared for their greater ambitions, of course. But to show the world the state of the current Gotei, and shame them in the public eye, was entirely welcome. It didn't much matter to her one way or another who it was that she faced, but when she stepped onto the stage, a small, arrogant smirk danced across her lips, barely noticeable except to those who knew her well.

A captain, eh? Perfect.

"Putting the Gotei to the test."

Shaoling had made it quite clear that was her primary reason for being here, and ultimately, the leadership of the Vandenreich had let it slide. Still, she'd heard talk of this one before she'd departed, and even after leaving. Word got around, after all, and she was nothing if not a master of acquiring information.

"What does that haori mean to you? Out of curiosity."

That was something that any captain should be able to answer, after all. Despite her disdain for the organization that had slighted her, she still knew the standards that she'd held herself to years ago. If she was going to be testing a captain, then it was only natural that she put the woman through the same questions she would have asked herself.

Shaoling could only scoff at that reply, an arrogant response that made it quite obvious exactly how she felt about that answer. So that was the sort of attitude these modern captains had? No pride in their position. There wasn't a chance they'd have lasted a century ago.

"How pathetic."

Taking in only a single breath, Shaoling flash stepped toward her opponent, an aggressive and direct approach as she whipped her heel toward Elyss intensely. The wind of her shunko practically screamed as the blow flew toward the captain. She'd held back against Erika simply on account of underestimating the woman, but she had no intention of doing that again.

Mm. Shaoling would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't at least moderately impressed by Elyss' response to that testing blow, but she was hardly giving this her all right out the gate. Not that she was taking it easy on her opponent by any stretch, of course. She simply didn't wish to play all her cards right away. If her opponent wanted to make space, then Shaoling would simply refuse to let any be made, and she moved forward again without a moment of hesitation as her right arm moved sideways in a swift cutting motion, her shunko creating a blade of wind that rocketed forward in a fraction of a second.

3 Fushiki: Kamone.

As the arc of wind cut forward, Shaoling herself brought herself low to the ground, one leg moving to swing for Elyss' ankles and ruin her footing. Realistically, the Captain's best recourse would be to move upward, but that was exactly what Shaoling wanted.

Meeting her head-on was certainly a bold maneuver, but Shaoling would never have made such an approach if she wasn't ready for that type of response. If anything, it would have been foolish of her not to plan for such a thing, given the reputation of the 7th Division's captain. The nature of Elyss' counterattack meant that it was easy enough to avoid any grave injury, but the woman's fist still made impact, and at their level of prowess, that still left a mark.

However, Shaoling wouldn't dare to take even a single moment of pause just because she'd been injured. Immediately on being struck, she slammed her palms into the ground, lifting herself up onto her hands and twisting both legs rapidly in a spinning kick. She could have maintained such rotation, but she wasn't an idiot like Kyoraku's former vice captain, and she knew that couldn't be reasonably maintained. Instead, she simply continued with that momentum, moving herself onto her feet again and attempting to slam her elbow into Elyss' face.

She had no technique name for that particular maneuver, though she did catalog it for later.